


When you call my name it's like a little prayer

by TheDameintheRaininMaine



Category: X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: 80's references, Backstory, F/M, Fluff, I need to stop naming fic after songs, Post Apocalypse, Telepathic Intimacy, found home and family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-04
Updated: 2016-06-04
Packaged: 2018-07-12 04:49:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7086169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDameintheRaininMaine/pseuds/TheDameintheRaininMaine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean always tries to ask permission before reading his mind now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When you call my name it's like a little prayer

Jean tries to ask before she reads his mind now. 

She says it's a habit she's trying to force. Part of the reason the other students treated her like a freak, she said, was because she often had a hard time with privacy when using her telepathy. 

"It wasn't even always intentional...someone would think a joke and I would laugh and not realize they hadn't actually said it...or I would mention something that I had over heard in their head and not remember I shouldn't know that...And people here aren't always quiet with their thoughts."

Scott wants to ask her how it started, how long it had been. He doesn't though. That seems to be a certain rule of etiquette here, If someone doesn't volunteer their past, don't ask. His own might be embarrassing, but some of the others are horrific. 

It's a few months after Egypt when she finally tells him. They're out on one of the fields by a tree, pretending to study, but really just enjoying the sun. Jean's leaning her back against the trunk of the tree, book open in front of her, forgotten. Scott's slumped off beside her, trying to figure out if resting his head on her shoulder would be too much. Jean's eyes are soft, a serenity in her that Scott hasn't seen often, when she starts to say,

"I was ten. My best friend Annie and I were playing in my front yard. I threw my frisbee and it went into the street. Mom always told us to be careful because we lived on a blind curve...neither of us saw the car. "

Her eyes look far away now. It's clear that this is hard for her to talk about.

"The driver went for help, but nothing could be done. Annie was dead on the scene, she bled out in my arms."

She pauses again. 

"That was when the telepathy started. I heard her last thoughts as I held her there in the street. I still remember to this day- what else is a ten year old going to think of when she died. She was terrified. She kept saying how sorry she was, and wondering what her mom would do without her..."

There's a tear rolling down her cheek, and Scott wonders if she still remembers that day so clearly. 

"I was out of school for the rest of the year. The voices were a complete onslaught, and I couldn't do anything about them. That combined with Annie's death...I must have seen a dozen psychiatrists before my parents found the Professor. I was one of the first dozen or so students here, and I've been here ever since". 

Her eyes are lost again, and he needs to reel her in. 

"On that light hearted note" Scott says, with a deliberately devil may care tone. "There's a carnival in town tonight, a bunch of us were going to check it out, want to come?"

(They do go that night. Scott tries to win her a garish blue elephant at the "knock over the bottles" game, and fails. He feels a little cowed when she buys a toss and knocks them over easily. When she takes her prize and they leave, she slips her hand into his, and whispers in his mind, "ha he bottles are weighted to make it hard to win. Now they can claim anyone could do it". Scott laughs softly, and in that moment feels happier than he has in ages. 

When they're sitting on an old bench outside the fence under the flickering lights of the midway, waiting for the others to finish, he gets up the courage to kiss her. She laughs in her mind, touching his in a way that feels infinitely more intimate than his hands on her face and her lips against his)

And while Jean avoids peeking into his thoughts, Scott has to admit that he likes it when she does. Words have never come easily to him, and his thoughts don't stutter or stammer or get lost in cowardice. 

More than a year after Egypt, she invites him to come home with her for Christmas and meet her family. 

"I know you're not close to your foster family, and I figured you wouldn't want to be the only student still here with the teachers over break". 

The drive out to Annandale-on-Hudson is a touch awkward. Jean's father is a college professor, a very upright citizen of a man. But ever since Egypt, Scott has changed. He never skips class and takes his responsibilities on the team seriously. He's the respectable sort to most people, the ones who never see the costumes, and a little parent appropriate small talk is well within his reach. 

Jean's family's house is a large, white painted building on a picture perfect street with a bright green perfectly manicured lawn. Very little remains to remind of what happened here before, and what could happen again to any one of the children on this street. 

Her mother greets them at the door warmly. Scott shakes her hand and looks her in the eye. She knows not to ask about the glasses, and for that he is grateful. 

When they both return to the door with their bags, he finds Jean staring at one of the front windows, which is boarded up with cardboard and duct tape. 

"Mom claimed it was an accident, but I saw. Someone threw a brick. "

"I guess it gets easy to forget what the rest of the world is like sometimes". 

It is, they've both fallen into their roles at the Institute. They know how things work there, and the times they leave generally involve problems that can be blasted or thrown off a cliff. This kind of thing is something they hear about, but don't see much of anymore. 

She shakes it off and continues back inside. 

Jean's family's home looks like something out of a catalog. Classic style, everything matches. Christmas decorations are festive but tasteful. There are books everywhere, and photos on all the walls. Scott catches a glimpse of one of a younger Jean and a darker haired girl whom he suspects must be Annie. They both look around eight or nine, wearing Girl Scout sashes and matching headbands. It's nice, a glimpse of the girl Jean was before all of this. 

Dinner is easy. Both of the Grey's take care to include him in conversation and seem genuinely interested in him. They press Jean with questions. She assures them that despite recent events, she is still planning to go to med school after graduating. They're encouraging, and supportive, and it's beyond clear how much they love her. Things Scott never got from any of his foster families. Alex had been the only family he ever had, and even he couldn't be around all the time. 

They sit on the couch after dinner watching an old movie on TV. The Christmas tree glitters in the corner while Jean's mother makes up the guest room for Scott and her father has retired to work on grading. 

As Jimmy Stewart comes to believe that his life is worth living, Jean's head drops onto Scott's shoulder and her hand slides into his pants pocket. Innocent enough to not cause scandal if either of her parents returned, but more than enough for him. 

He glances at her, the glittering lights from the tree dancing against her pale skin. His heart feels like it might explode from his chest. He wants to tell her so much. He wants to thank her from bringing him. He wants to tell her that this is something he never thought he would have, a life that would never have him, even this little taste. He wants to tell her that he's never felt this way about anyone before...

"It's okay, you don't have to say it if you're not ready. The thought means an awful lot". 

If the last touch of her mind against his had been the brush of a feather, this one was the warmth of an embrace. 

Scott had inherited Alex's few remaining possessions. The only of them of any note was his reasonably cool car. He had already had his license before coming to the Institute, and driving with the ruby quartz glasses had only been a small adjustment, but the car had sustained some damage in the explosion and driving it had still felt raw after Alex's death. 

But come the spring, Scott has managed to fix it up, and offers to help Jean finally get her license. 

Getting out of the area for a while is always nice. Classes are coming to a head, and missions are becoming more and more common as they start to come together as a team. The younger students who have come need training too, and they're now the seniors to them. 

One night after a lesson stretches into early evening, they take their chance and go into town to see a movie. Red Dawn is fairly silly, especially the two of them having stared the end of the world in the face and won. But it makes for a good date, and walking around a nearby park laughing at it makes the night even better. 

"Have you figured out what you're going to do in fall?" Jean finally asks, glancing at the ground. 

This is a subject that they've been avoiding. Jean leaves in August for college. Scott never any such inclination, definitely nothing as set of a goal as hers, even before this. 

"Take classes at the junior college in town. Maybe get a job. I don't know...leaving the school doesn't even seem possible to me. I've never had a home before. The professor says he could always use more instructors, more people to help with all the kids he's been finding". 

They've come to a stop in the parking lot in front of where Scott's parked. He offers her the keys to drive back. 

Before she takes them, she says, "I'll always come back. This place is as much a home to me as it is to you. I swear."

It's a top down night, and completely dark. Jean takes one of the back roads back to the school, so as to not encounter too many other cars. 

They reach a stretch of road on the other side of the pond that's on Xavier's property, and Jean pulls off to the side and puts the car in park. 

"What are you?" Scott's question is immediately pushed to the side as Jean leans over the center divider and kisses him fiercely, hands gripping his shirt. 

When Scott quietly asks permission as he unbuttons her blouse, her mind nudges at him repeatedly. Every touch of her mind as intense as the touches of her fingers along his skin. They sink down in the back seat, clothing shed or pushed aside. 

Jean locks eyes with him as he hovers above her, and when he asks "are you sure?", she nods and when he pushes into her, her mind pushes back. Touching his scalp, silently, she pleas, "let me in". 

And he does. 

It's instant, less a crowd than a conversation, their minds reaching out to meet as their bodies move together.

Eventually they both collapse and separate, out of breath, but her mind never again wholly leaves his 

"I told you" she says, wordlessly, as she presses against him, sweaty and sated. "You're as much my home as I am yours. Distance is nothing". 

He laughs, and silently returns with "I guess that's right".


End file.
